Former McGinn Backers Help Murray Cancel Campaign Debt

"Late-train" contributions from former Mike McGinn supporters help Murray cancel out campaign debt.

Just as former Joe Mallahan supporters climbed aboard the Mike McGinn "late train" when McGinn won election in 2009—giving first-time donations to the winning candidate after supporting the loser to help him cancel his outstanding debt—new Ed Murray converts have been whipping out their checkbooks, contributing thousands of dollars toward Murray's post-election debt.

As of the end of last year (the date of the last full report to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission), Murray remained nearly $50,000 in debt; also as of December 31, he'd raised around $818,000.

(McGinn, who reported debt of just over $20,000 as of December 31, is holding a fundraiser at Spitfire in Belltown on January 22 to help retire his own campaign debt).

Donors who gave to McGinn before he lost the election, and contributed to Murray for the first time after he won, include:

• Lyft, the controversial ridesharing service that's currently lobbying against proposed city regulations that would restrict its operations ($700 to McGinn, now $700 to Murray);

• Tom Von Schrader, and engineer with the urbanistas at SVR Design, a sustainable landscape architecture firm whose downtown Seattle headquarters were phone bank central for McGinn in 2009 ($500 to McGinn, now $250 to Murray);

• Former Greg Nickels spokeswoman and current political consultant Marianne Bichsel ($50 to McGinn now $100 to Murray);

• Pyramid Communications principal John Hoyt ($700 to McGinn, now $500 to Murray);

• Public affairs consultant Sue Tupper ($200 to McGinn, now $500 to Murray);

• Maurice Callahan, head of the Urban Renaissance Group, a downtown real estate investment firm and a former chair of the Urban Land Institute ($700 to McGinn, now $700 to Murray);

• Martin J. Durkan, Jr., a development lobbyist ($250 to McGinn, now $500 to Murray);

• The United Food and Commercial Workers, whose local office (Local 21) contributed $50,100 to the independent-expenditure campaign Working Families for McGinn and whose D.C. office contributed $50,000. UFCW Local 21 gave McGinn $700 and now $700 to Murray;

• Land-use lobbyist Lynn Claudon, who lobbied on behalf of McGinn's arena proposal ($540 to McGinn, now $700 to Murray);

Again, those numbers—which aren't comprehensive—include only individuals or groups that gave exclusively to McGinn before the election, and gave to Murray for the first time after the election.

Other interesting late contributions to Murray (none of whom gave to McGinn) include: James Corner Field Operations, the company that's developing the city's waterfront plan ($700), Friends of the Waterfront executive director Heidi Hughes ($250), D.C.-based Democratic Party group M-PAC ($700), Parametrix engineer John Perlic, whose firm did Chris Hansen's arena traffic study ($250), and the Seattle Fire Fighters' PAC ($700).

The top three employers of former state senator Murray's contributors, by the way, were the state of Washington, Microsoft, and the city of Seattle. The top three employers of McGinn contributors were the city of Seattle, the state of Washington, and King County.

The list of early McGinn loyalists also makes clear, again, that McGinn had plenty of financial support from the "establishment," including tunnel engineering fims, established political consultants, and downtown developers.